


Shake Your Shimmy Sister

by noxelementalist



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Female Friendship, Gen, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 13:58:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22973779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxelementalist/pseuds/noxelementalist
Summary: In which Katara and Toph meet up.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	Shake Your Shimmy Sister

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muggle95](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muggle95/gifts).

> set after/mild spoilers for the series finale of Korra

Kyoshi Island in winter was a lovely sight. Unlike the more tropical islands of the Earth Kingdom Kyoshi did get snow, snow that blanketed and slid off the thatched roofs of houses onto the ground. Snow meant a break from the harsh life of fishing, a break marked by snowpeople and warm drinks offered freely. Even those who weren’t outdoorsy enjoyed the picturesque scene, and more than one verse or two of a poem game was dedicated to the symbolism of white merging with green grass. 

The mix of elements was why Katara and Toph had chosen Kyoshi as a place to meet up, way back when Toph had moved into Foggy Bottom Swamp and Katara, her children all grown and her husband...well, when Katara had moved back to her own home among the Southern Water Tribe. The remoteness of each meant phone calls were a pain and letters nigh impossible to send. Even the ones Katara had wrapped in a metal box to keep the raised marks on the page from smearing or flattening into blobs Toph couldn’t read wound up being destroyed.

So they had to meet face to face, and Kyoshi Island was halfway between them, with enough trees and metal for Toph while having enough ice and water for Katara. 

It was only three years into their annual meeting that Toph pointed out that this made Kyoshi a perfect battleground, in case they needed to fight or wanted to spar. Katara had replied that nobody would be stupid enough to fight the women who’d taught two Avatars how to bend, and she’d been proven right.

"You gonna stand over there staring at all this cold stuff, or are you going to say hello?" a voice shouted at her, high and cranky.

"Let an old lady take in the view whippersnapper!" Katara yelled back with a laugh.

Katara watched as a woman walked out onto the porch of the mill. She wasn't tall, and she was wrapped in what appeared to be a long, thick, white fur coat, but even as far away as she was Katara could see the edge of emerald green around the woman's feet and the glimmer of gold bracelets around her wrists.

"Whippersnapper?" the woman shouted. "You losing your vision old lady?"

Katara started walking more quickly. "If I did, your swamp got room for me Toph?"

"More than your glacier does for me," Toph replied loudly back as she stepped off the porch. "Would it kill you to get some trees down there at the South Pole?"

"You know any that could survive?"

"The North has a garden going."

"They're not floating on pure ice!"

"Neither are we," Toph told her as the two met in the middle of the road. This close Katara could see the tell-tale signs of age in her friend's face: dried wrinkles, thinner cheeks, bangs of white hair where there used to be black. Only Toph's eyes remained the same, as milky and flickering as they ever had. 

Katara wondered if Toph could tell the signs of age in her too now, if the ripples from her slower shuffling steps signaled to Toph through the ground how her bones ached, how her face had thickened and leathered and her own hair greyed. 

"It's good to see you," Katara said, pulling Toph into a hug.

"Duh, I'm a stunner," Toph replied back, hugging Katara tightly. "Not like you, I bet."

"What?"

"Everyone knows waterbenders crack as they age. Bet you’re all wrinkly now."

"I'll have you know that I got a marriage proposal just the other day," Katara told her as she pulled back.

"Told them no?"

"Obviously."

"Good choice. Women like us don't need no man to stand on our own two feet," Toph said, pulling Katara back towards the mill. “Saw that Korra girl of yours by the way. She and Asami are doing great."

"I’m glad to hear that. There were days there, you know, when I thought..."

"I know,” Toph said. ”Didn't help that girl being as stubborn as Aang ever was."

"You could tell that to his face now, you know," Katara told him. "Now that the Spirit Portals are open."

"I have."

"What?"

Toph rolled her eyes. "The Great Swamp Tree connects to every tree on the planet Katara," she told her. "You think I was gonna let some measly little detail about physical bodies stop me?"

"Toph," Katara asked just as they reached the porch, slowly moving up its wooden steps. "Have you been talking with ghosts through Spirit Trees?"

"Yes, and speaking of ghosts, your brother told me to tell you to visit him and Aang sometimes.”

"Sokka?"

"You have some other brother?" Toph teased her as she opened the door to the mill, revealing a banquet hall with the other islanders seated inside, including a few Kyoto warriors who had taken a table off to one corner. 

"No, but- I've thought about it you know," Katara admitted to her as they went inside. 

"Then what’s the hold up? You get cold feet?"

"It just...feels strange to go visit alone."

"Then we’ll go together," Toph told her as they sat down at a table near where the millstones would've been turning if it had been operational.

"Really?"

Toph nodded at Katara. "I'm up for haunting Sokka's spiritual butt," she told her. "Now, enough about all this serious stuff. I've ordered our drinks and told them to bring us a Go board. Catch me up on all that good water tribe gossip."

Katara smiled, grateful for the subject change, and began to do just that.


End file.
